Checkmate
by IWantToRemainNameless
Summary: Thanks to justkeepwriting for the title. Can't think of a summary but here's a hint as to what it's about, JARA! Also please read the little AN at the beginning and end for some info on a idea to do ;) Worded awkardly but please give it a chance. Rated T for cursing.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi, so as some of you had maybe seen I had posted a contest – like A LOT of other people – but I got a review saying and I quote, "Pathetic! Posting such announcement as fic is not allowed on the site. This will be reported if you don't remove it." I will not say who wrote it as they will be EXTREMELY annoyed, like I was when I saw it but now they can't say anything seeing as this IS a story with a suggestion at the bottom. Sorry if I sound like a bitch but that really annoyed me. You know who you are, I've removed the contest and go look for others to threaten why don't you? Anyway on with the story…**

Jerome's POV

"Checkmate." I say casually to the small girl in front of me. This is now the 3rd time I've won one of our games of chess and what a victorious win it is.

"How?" she asks, slightly frustrated,

"Now little Mara, no need to get angry" I say mockingly, a smirk on my face. "Another game?" I ask in the tone as my previous comment.

"No thanks, Jerome. I have homework to do and I'm pretty sure you do too," I sigh and run my fingers through my hair. Course I have homework to do but that does not mean I'm going to do it. I get too bored and go WAY off track. For example, we once had to write an essay about when we were a child what we wanted to do, I ended up writing "When I was younger I wanted to escape this hellhole called school, as I still do now." Mr Sweet loved it, he really did. Mara looked at me and like she read my thought she said, "Do you want me to help you, Jerome?"

I simply nodded and got up to follow Mara to the common room. When we were there I sat down on the sofa as did she. "The history of Liverpool," Mara mumbled to herself, "That even bores me." She said under her breath. I chuckled at her honesty and said, "I'll look it up online and then re-word it." She looked at me shocked before cracking a smile and biting her lip to stop herself laughing. "Do you think it would be more believable if I misspell Liverpool?" I ask her to make her laugh, which I succeeded on. She burst into a fit of laughter: her head flung back as she tried to control her laughter, her tanned face was slowly turning red and honestly she had never looked more beautiful. How could she be single? More importantly, why do I like her? I normally go for girls who are either loud and outgoing, pretty and dumb or just plain desperate to go out with me. Never have I ever liked anyone like Mara. Mara's out of all the categories my usual girl is, in no way is she loud or outgoing, she's definitely not desperate, she's the complete opposite of dumb and she's not pretty, she's beautiful. The bigger mystery is why does she have this effect on me? If I fancy a girl I just go to her, speak in a flirty voice and BAM, I have a girlfriend. Once Mara's laughter died down she say thoughtfully "That might actually work," and now it's my turn to laugh.

"I knew you'd think so." I said with a smile on my face. I bring out my phone and search "the history of Liverpool" and wait for the results. After this a comfortable silence falls upon us whilst I re-word what Google has to say and Mara was writing her own masterpiece. 20 minutes pass before I'm finished, "Done" I announce,

"Not even near," Mara replies back, not looking up from her paper. I move closer to her and look at what she's done; 3 pages. "Where are you up to now?" I ask her, she looks at her paper before saying, "1967"

"Re-word mine, it's all correct I promise you. Or so says the internet." I say handing her my paper.

"The internet is also the cause for people for other countries faking a posh accent, which we don't have, saying "Ow! Charlie bit me! OW! That really hurt Charlieeeee!" She says mocking a posh voice.

I had to laugh at this as did she. "Thanks though, this sounds… believable." She says scanning the paper. As she started writing again I pulled out my phone. My phone, which had many scratches, started ringing as I was about to complete my last Angry Birds level. "Crap" I mummer.

"Who is it?" Mara asks curiously, I shrug noticing the unidentified number. The press the accept button and bring the phone to my ear.

"Hello?" I say to the mystery person,

"Are you Jerome Clarke?" The person said: the man had a deep, low voice which made the phone vibrate slightly on my ear. At this point it was only me and Mara at home so she mouthed "put it on speaker," Me adoring her like I do did as I was told.

"May I ask; who is this?" I ask before giving away my identity away to some stranger.

"Robert Drungler." He replied seriously.

"Great, so who are you, Drungler?" I ask, apparently quite rudely as Mara hisses, "Don't be so rude!" to me.

"I know your father." He replies, emotionless. I was shocked, honestly. I've never met my father before: my Mum said she left us after I was born and that he was just a waste of space. Course she's a terrible mum who left her only son to rot at some ancient boarding when he was 5 so anything she says is most likely a lie.

"Well that's great seeing as I don't, where is he?" I say just as emotionless.

"Prison," He says, no change at all in his tone. I stayed quiet and Mara let out a small gasp. "He wants to meet you and your sister, Polly or something.

"Poppy." I say defending my sister, "Can I think about it" I tell more than ask the man.

"Course," He says then hangs up.

I look at Mara and she has the same shock in her eyes as I do. "Are you going?" She asks in a whisper.

"I don't know." I tell her.

"Well whatever you choose, I'll be here." She says placing her hand on mine which rested on my lap. I move my head in her direction and stare into her eyes. "Thank you." I say, my own voice is hoarse. She looks at my eyes and for a second I swear she's looking into my mind and seeing all my secrets, all my emotions and my abandonment inflicted trust issues. "You can trust me, you know that right?" she whispers to me.

"Course I know that, and there's no point in reminding me seeing as I already do." I whisper to her. We had been whispering so much, consequently our faces were only inches apart. We started coming closer and closer until the gap in between us is filled…

**Done! Cheesy ending I know. I know that isn't what really happened with John but hey ho. Here are the details for if you want to write a story of which I will judge ;)**

**It can be either, Fabina, Amfie, Jara or Peddie.**

**It can be a one-shot or a multi-chapter.**

**The rating can be ANYTHING, all will be accepted.**

**The due date is undecided, I will give a warning as to when it ends in the next chappy.**

**Have fun and remember, this is not a challenge. Just to clarify that to You- know- who- you- are.**

**-IWantToRemainNameless x **


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi, so I forgot to put this in the last chappy but if you are doing my "suggestion" then please put my name in the summary so it is easy to find it. And I would like to thank everyone who left a review; I was genuinely surprised, anyway on with the story…**

Mara's POV

I twist and turn in my bed, unable to fall asleep. I turn over to face my digital alarm clock and look at the time; 1:17. I haven't had a wink of sleep yet but strangely enough my mind isn't shouting at me about 'how this isn't good for my education' or that 'a healthy brain is an awake brain.' All I'm thinking about is Jerome. Poor Jerome; not only is it enough that his mother left him to rot a some boarding school when he was five but now he finds out that his father is in prison? But more to the point, why is he in prison? I know that it's not polite to be a judge of character but Jerome's mother is a wicked, evil woman, I didn't just pick that up from her leaving him here but Jerome told me (I'm still not sure why he would trust me with a secret like this) that his mother was an alcoholic and that she would regularly 'forget' to feed Jerome and that she would take her anger out on him, verbally and physically. That means that Jerome doesn't take after his mother and must do his father instead, so his dad can't be a horrible person. My attention then draws to Robert, why would a mysterious man just say that he knows Jerome's father out of the blue? Bit dodgy don't you think? But then again, what is simple in Jerome's life.

I realize that I'm not going to get any sleep so I bring out my phone and just stare at it. After a while I search up Robert, if he knows Jerome's dads then the chances are he's most likely in the same prison as him. 'Robert Drungler' I type in and as I do I feel the anticipation build up inside of me, I don't know why I feel like this, it's not MY life it's effecting it's his, but he's having an awfully big effect on me at this time. Why? It's not like I like him, do I? Absurd, I know I'm not 'ugly' but I'm certainly not pretty enough for him, or shouting for his attention, but you know… I mean we… well "He probably did it as a mistake." I say to myself. I look back at my phone and click on the top result. I read it and wait for my reaction.

"Robert Drungler is known to local prisons and police departments as a messenger. Drungler makes his living by passing messages through prisoners to their family or loved ones, with and additional fee. Despite being well known to local police departments Drungler has never been caught in the act, just been spoken of through talk. His locations are unidentifiable as his business moves around whenever he likes. Whether he's alone or not in his business is a mystery but he's the only one, if he works co-operatively, who has ever been seen. On one occasion when the police did catch Drungler, although he escaped a short time later, he was recorded to have said "Fuck you. I'm doin' good 'ere and you lot are trying to stop me? Heartless prats" If you have any information or details on-"

I stopped reading there; it was all I needed to know. Jerome's dad was _paying _a man to talk to his son and Jerome and I was oblivious to it. I had to tell Jerome. I was about to jump out of bed and run down the stairs to tell him when I realised it was like half one in the morning. I laid back and sunk into the warm mattress. I closed my eyes hoping my discovery would help me sleep, but it didn't. When I closed my eyes all I saw was Jerome, he was close to me and getting closer, for a minute I thought it was a sweet dream but then I realised it was a flashback of this evenings events. I, Mara Jaffrey, had kissed Jerome Clarke. With no regret of course, but he most likely did. I'm not sure if it would make it awkward between Jerome and me but I will do all in my power to prevent that from happening. I won't act like the kiss didn't happen or that I forgot about it, I don't want to forget, but I'm just gone to act natural and see what happens then. See if he likes me or if it really was a mistake to him. If it was a mistake to him, which I am debating about, I will just move on but the thought of losing him, as a friend, kills me inside. I sigh and stare up at our blank ceiling waiting for night to end and for morning to come, bringing a new day with it.

**That's it for now. Please note that I have NO clue in god's name where this story is going so if the plot seems to change throughout different chapters, remember that. This chapter was just to fill you in on what Mara thinks. And if it wasn't clear, which it probably wasn't, Mara is completely oblivious to the fact Jerome likes her, she doesn't regret kissing him seeing as she fancies him as well but is starting to think he does regret kissing her. Oh and if you are doing my suggestion (see the first chapter to see what I'm going on about) please don't forget to put my name in the summary. I want at least 10 (in total, not 10 more) reviews before I upload the next chapter. Bye and thanks for reading! **

**-IWTRN x**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello! I'm sorry I've taken so long to update it's just that I've been trying to get all my stories on their third chapter and I left this one till last for some reason. Anyway, I've said this on my other HoA story, but I thought I'd say it again. I'm thinking of doing a OC House of Anubis story, they'll most likely be Nina's American friends but I'm not sure if it's a good idea, please leave a review or PM me your thoughts. I didn't get 10 reviews but I want this to get read more than reviewed so yeah. Anyway on with chapter 3 of "Checkmate"…**

-Next Morning-

Mara's POV

My hand hovered over the handle to his door, unsure of if I should go in to tell him about Robert or if my presence will be awkward. I carried on mentally arguing with myself until a creaking noise dragged me from my thoughts. The door in front of me opened and there stood a tall, handsome, blue eyed creature called Jerome. He looked at me for minute, trying to figure out what I was doing, before starting conversation.

"Were you going to come in or just stand there all day?" He asked; the amusement in his voice unhidden. I blushed before stepping into his and Alfie's room. Strangely though, Alfie himself wasn't there.

"Where's Alfie?" I asked.

"With Nina and Fabian and whoever," He answered casually.

"Since when did Alfie have something in common with Fabian and Nina?" I asked; confused by the thought of what they could be doing.

"Dunno. Don't even know what they're doing." He said. I took this as my cue to drop the subject. I nodded and turned round to face him sitting on his bed. Much to my relief there was no awkwardness in the air. "So how may I help you?" He asked me. I then remembered my reason to visit him and threw him my phone. As he read through the paragraph I studied his face for his reaction, only to be left struggling as his face was unreadable. He looked at me unsure of what to say, as was I.

"He's been paying someone to talk to you…"I reminded him. He looked at me, his icy blue eyes meeting my brown ones. I waited for his reply, waited for some comment or input of any sort.

"I'll meet him." He said in a low voice. I stared at him, unsure of what to say. I knew that Jerome was scared too, he just wouldn't let his guard down to show it.

"Do you want me to come?-"I ask. No! Why would he?! "-You know, so you're not alone?" I cover up quickly. He looks at me like I'm mad.

"You would?" He asks genuinely shocked.

"Of course," I hesitated before continuing. "Jerome, why do you think that no one wants to help you or be there for you?"

(AN: Let's just pretend that the little chat Mara and Jerome had in season 1 about him being left here to rot never happened, ok? Thanks)

"Mara, I've told you about my mum," he started. I nodded before he continued. "Well above all that, she didn't do the one thing a mother should, no HAS to do. She didn't love me. She left me here to rot when I was five, and so rotten is what I've become. Who would want to help or be friends with someone who's rotten?" He asks. Me. I think, I want to be there for you, to grow closer to you. Of course I don't say that but just,

"Me." One word, one syllable, can't be interpreted into anything else. "And you're not rotten. Anything but it, in fact"

He looked at me with shock, surprise and hope. He gulped and thanked me. I sent him a smile to say you're welcome, what he then did surprized me. It was not the Jerome that the rest of our house mates know, but the deep, sensitive Jerome that_ I_ know. He hugged me. He probably meant nothing of it, but I treasured every moment of being in his protective embrace. When the dreaded moment that we parted came he looked down at me and said, "I would like you to come, very much." I sent him another smile.

"When?" I asked."

"Soon, I'll ring him back later." He replied coolly.

"Ok, I'll see you at breakfast then." I said, remembering it was like seven in the morning.

-Later At Breakfast-

I sat down in my usual seat, which just so happens to be next to Jerome's, when I heard yelling and screaming. I turned my head in the direction of the noise and saw Amber chasing Alfie. Only then did I realise they were the only two not at the table. Amber was running as fast as she could and screaming "Come back here, Alfie Lewis!" I let out a small laugh, towards the fact that the two were so, entertaining, and that Amber was so oblivious to the fact that Alfie liked her. The chair next to me pulled up and Jerome sat on it. I was about to start talking to him when Trudy came in through the kitchen.

"Breakfast is served!" She said cheerily, laying down plates of muffins and pancakes. She went into the kitchen to get some more food when Alfie came shooting through the door.

"Did someone say food?" he asked. His eyes set upon the muffins and pancaked. He was about to eat them all his self when Trudy came in.

"Wait Alfie, I still have more to set out." She put down plated of bacon and toast when she said, "Oh, Jerome. You have some post." She said waving a brown envelope in front of us. He looked shocked but took the envelope gratefully. He opened it and his eyes widened, I knew it was something to do with his father. I stood up and went next to him.

"What is it?" I ask. He hands me the envelope and inside it and small bit of scrap paper with a number on it. Underneath the number it said 'John Clarke' Wow.

**That's it for now. Sorry it was rushed but I have to go to school, please R&R. Oh and send me a PM or a review about what you thing of the OC thing thanks.**


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